The Best Of Me, A Brantley Gilbert Story
by MsManda-D
Summary: After losing her fiance because of a drunk driver it was hard for Katie Simmons to find much sympathy for those who drank and chose to drive. To her they were the reason her one and only love was gone. As a nurse she had to care for them anyway, but what would happen when she found herself befriending one of those very people, and would he be the one to remind her of love was?
1. Chapter 1

Chapt. 1

"Please be advised that we have one in transport. Male, approximately 18-20 years old, appears to be intoxicated. Trauma to the head, In and out of consciousness, blood pressure is 65 over 42 and dropping. We are giving oxygen, have blood and fluids ready. Five minutes out."

I turned and shook my head. What was the deal with these kids thinking it was so cool to go out and get drunk, and then get behind a wheel? How on earth could they not realize the damage that they could cause to themselves and to others, and to the families involved? And then here I am, taking care of them, helping them to recover just so that they can go out and do it all again. As a nurse you don't get to choose who to help, but you do get to choose the attitude that you help them with, and as always I would treat this kid, only five years younger than myself, like he was the only patient here. And I'd pray. Always that.

Four minutes after the radio had gone silent the ambulance came screaming into the emergency bay. I didn't think I'd ever get used to that sound. I was filling in for a friend who was away with family business and I was having to re-acclimate myself to the fast paced emergency atmosphere. I hadn't worked emergency since doing my residency, and if I was honest I preferred my usual rotation upstairs in the ICU, with those who were in need of a more personalized, one on one care.

I watched as the paramedics lifted the stretcher out of the ambulance and repeatedly squeezing the bag that was helping to push the air into this poor kid's lungs. When the doctors took over and wheeled the stretcher into the hospital I allowed all of my training to kick in and take over.

It was almost five hours before the kid was stable and able to be moved to a room in the ICU. He would need constant monitoring for the next 48 hours. There had been angels holding onto that boy tonight, there was no doubt about it. It had been touch and go, and there were a few times that I wasn't sure he was going to pull through. He had though, and was now heavily sedated. The swelling around his brain had gone down and was under control, but he wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Doctor, I'd like to be the one to speak to his family if you don't mind. I've sat in their seat, and the news wasn't nearly this good. I know how they are feeling right now. I'd like to be the one to tell them he's alive."

"Kate, are you certain that you want to do this? It's not the nurses responsibility to do the talking in that room, you know that."

I nodded, "Yes, I know it's not my responsibility, but this time I'd like to make it mine." I turned the knob to the waiting room and was met with solemn, worried faces.

"Nurse, doctor, how is he?" the father said leaping up. The mother was right behind him.

"Please, let's sit down and I will be happy to tell you about your son." Taking a seat nearest the mother, I crossed my legs at the knee and tried my best to maintain a professional and yet non-threatening posture. "Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert, your son is in serious condition right now, we have him stabilized and in an ICU room now. He was in a severe accident as you know. From what we have been told, he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree at which time he was thrown from the vehicle out the back window. His body was slammed into a tree and he suffered various wounds, namely to his head. He has a concussion, and we had to close a pretty serious laceration on the back of his head as well. There was some swelling around his brain but we have that under control as well and are monitoring him very closely. As I said he's in critical condition however he is stable."

The mother broke down into bittersweet tears. Relief that her son was okay, fear that she might still lose her son. The father looked deflated, as though he was at the end of some invisible rope. "Do you know what caused the accident? Was he drinking?" This last from the mother was said on a whisper that held hope that I would tell her no, he was sober, and yet it held an certainty that he had been.

"Mrs. Gilbert, the results of the toxicology report and other labs tell us that he was under the influence of alcohol. His blood alcohol level was .43 which is well above the legal limit of .08. No other vehicles were involved."

After another ten minutes the mother asked to see her son. "Absolutely Mrs. Gilbert, please come with me." We stood and headed to the door. Once in the elevator I said, "Now before you go in, remember that he has been in a severe accident. He's got facial bruising and swelling, and there are many tubes including oxygen. It can be shocking and overwhelming at first, but he is stable, and that is what you have to remember, even when it doesn't look that way."

When we can to his room in the ICU I moved to open the door but was stopped by his mom's hand on mine. "Thank you, thank you so very much nurse, you and all of the doctors for taking care of my boy. Thank you for not writing him off as just another kid who got drunk. He's a good kid; he just needs to see the light again is all. He just has to see that he's headed down the wrong road and I pray that if any good can come from this, I pray that is it."

I nodded as tears pooled in my eyes. "You're welcome Mrs. Gilbert. It is really no problem. My prayers are with you and your family, your son as well." I let them into the room and remained there, looking in the window. I saw the mother place a tender and gentle kiss on the boy's forehead and when the tears come to her face I turned and walked away.

That night, sitting all alone in my small apartment drinking a cup of coffee I let my mind wander to places that I normally didn't allow it to go. A place in time, four years ago when all of my happy plans, all of my dreams and hopes of a future were brought to a halt, a place that brought more hurt than a physical blow. I was engaged, planning a wedding and it was only months away. My fiancé had left my place that night, rain was pouring down in blinding sheets. The cops say he never saw the car, the driver drunk, cross the yellow line that night. Of course they say he didn't suffer either which was my only solace in the midst of the pain. His neck had been broken, but no one wanted to give me the details. I was in my last year of my nursing residency and no one wanted me jaded. I just found his file at the hospital and read it myself. I thrived on the facts, it helped me heal.

The drunk driver who killed the one man I loved in this life, he walked away without a scratch or a bruise; nothing to show that he had been in an accident or ended a life. Of course that didn't matter, the cops and legal system knew what he had done and they gave him fifty years in prison for it. I showed up every day for his trial. I knew that it wasn't going to bring Jason back, but in some way it helped to ease the hurt. Since then I'd never carried any sympathy for people who chose to drink and get behind a wheel. I couldn't, not when they put so many innocent lives in danger. It was more than foolish it was selfish and stupid. They had no concern for anyone who they hurt, and I couldn't feel for anyone like that.

When the sun had set and I was sitting in the dark nursing a cold cup of coffee I decided it was about time to get up and head to bed. I fell asleep after endless minutes of staring at the ceiling and then tossed and turned all night long. My dreams were haunted by the face of a kid, bruised and battered, all because of one foolishly selfish decision.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapt. 2

My shift started right at twelve noon the next day and I walked in ten minutes early as always. This morning however I had a Starbucks in hand and dark shades over my eyes. Lack of sleep was evident in every step.

"Nurse Simmons, you look as if you had one long night. Everything okay with you?"

"Yes doctor, just a lot on my mind I guess. I didn't manage to get a lot of sleep."

Doctor Turner looked down at the chart in his hands and said, "Well then, if all if well aside from the sleep issue, I trust you're ready for a long day. Here's the chart for your patient. Given the seriousness of this one you're going to be focusing on this one patient today."

I sighed. I really disliked being confined to one patient. I much preferred flitting room to room in the ICU and caring for all of those who I had come to know in their time there, and getting to know the new ones. "Yes sir, doctor.

"Nurse Simmons I know how you feel about being charged with only one patient for your shift, all the nurses feel the same way, but if it makes a difference, this was a special request from the patient's family." With that he walked away, likely so I'd have no time to argue with him.

As I headed for the elevator I glanced down at the chart in my hands. I couldn't help but shake my head. Gilbert. I should have known the minute the doctor had said it was a special request. Was this some kind of payback for some horrid thing I had done as a teenager? The kid invaded my sleep, and now he's going to be invading my life again for the next twelve hours. And I guess I had to stop calling him a kid. He was only three years younger than I was, hardly a kid I guess.

When I walked into his room I wasn't fully prepared for the sight that greeted me. I guess I should have read beyond the name and date of birth on his chart on my way up. He was awake when just a few hours ago he was in a coma with machines helping his lungs to function. Not only was he awake, he was talking to the swing shift nurse. When she saw me she excused herself and met me in the hallway.

"Jaime, when did he come out of the coma?"

"Well hi to you to sunshine, I'm just fine thanks for asking. As for our lovely patient he opened his eyes about eight o'clock this morning. His parents were here for the event too. Naturally he's been in pain since he woke but he has a morphine drip going to help that problem. Biggest problem that we have to wait out is the amnesia he seems to have. Poor kid doesn't know his name or what year he's living in. He even had trouble with his mom and dad."

My heart sank. I could not imagine how his parents had to feel, especially loving him like they do. "Okay then, I'll take it from here. Have a nice day Jaime." I walked in and smiled at the patient as I walked to the side of the bed and sat my hand on his. "Hey there Mister Gilbert, how are you feeling today?"

"Like fucking hell. The other nurse, the one who was just here, she said I was in a car wreck. She wouldn't tell me what happened."

I pulled up a chair and took a seat at his bedside. "I hear your memory is giving you some issues. What's your first name?"

He shook his head and winced. "I don't know! God, my head is pounding!"

I smiled weakly, feeling bad for him. "Who is the president of the United States?" Again he said he didn't know. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I believe that the truth and facts can be healing in life. Because of that I will be honest with you about what happened that brought you here to this room. Yes, you were in a car accident. You lost control of your truck and a tree was kind enough to stop it. You were thrown out the back of the vehicle and another tree was waiting. You suffered some pretty bad cuts and in all truthfulness you almost didn't make it. There was swelling around the brain but it's under control now and you were in a coma for about twelve hours."

His face held so much confusion and what almost looked like hurt. I wondered if I was too harsh in my retelling of the events. Then I saw his face as he seemed to finally take in all of the tubes and machines. "How can I not remember that? Hell, how can I not remember my parents? How the hell did I lose control so damn bad?"

"I'm going to assume that you want truth here to. According to the toxicology reports you were highly intoxicated, well over the legal limits." He winced as though he was in pain. "Are you alright, is the morphine drip not working properly?"

"I'm fine, it's fine."

I nodded. Okay then, is there anything else you need? Water, blanket, anything at all?" He shook his head no and I stood to leave. "Okay then, I'll be close by if you decide you do need anything. Just hit the call button, I'll come right in. For now how about trying to get some rest?"

I walked out and closed the door behind me and walked over to my desk. Amnesia was far from uncommon in head trauma patients, so it wasn't a total shock that it was affecting this one. The good news was they almost always regained memory.

"Nurse, I'm here to see Brantley , they told me that you were his nurse so I had to see you."

I look up to see a young girl, she couldn't have been a day over eighteen, long brown hair, shorts, tank top, and boots. "And you are?"

"Amy, I'm his girlfriend, his parents said that they had added me to the visitation list."

I looked down at my desk and saw a note saying that she was indeed allowed to come in. "I see, Amy, have a seat for me; let's talk before you go in to see him. I assume that you've spoken to his family?"

"I have, when they got home last night they called me and told me how he was."

"How long have you two been together Amy?"

"It will be two years next month. Please, nurse, I just want to see him."

Oh this poor girl, so eager to see someone who wouldn't know who she was or remember a day of the last two years with her. "I understand, please, just a minute and you're welcome to go on in. Have you spoken to his parents today at all?" She shook her head no and I watched as her eyes went wide with deep rooted fear. "Well, there is some good news, and there is some news that isn't as good. The good news is that he opened his eyes this morning, coming out of his coma. That is excellent news, and it happened much faster than we thought it would. He's taking in limited fluids and he's talking and reasoning which is also good news when a head injury is there."

"That's wonderful! He's strong, I knew he'd beat this!"

"I did say there was some news that wasn't so good. He does have a head injury, the parents told you that I'm sure. There are certain, side effects so to speak, that can accompany a head injury. Among the most common is amnesia. Are you familiar with that condition at all?"

At first she looked a little confused and the a look of complete disbelief took over her face. "Are you telling me that he doesn't remember anything?"

"In a nutshell, yes. Right now he is having extreme difficulty with things as simple as the year, his name, even his parents. When you go in, chances are high that he isn't going to know who you are."

Tears silently slid down her face. "But his memory, it will come back right? He's gonna remember everything?"

"In most cases yes, though it isn't clear how much of his memory will return. In the most rare cases some won't regain any memory, but in this particular case, it's still really hard to tell. You can help him though. Talk to him. Share the stories of all the times you two have spent together, you're favorite places, songs, whatever. You have to be his memory right now."

She nodded as she wiped her face with the backs of her hands. "I want to see him now, please."

"Of course, right this way." As she stood and unfolded her hands I caught the glint of a small diamond from her ring finger. "So when is the big day?" I asked as we walked to his room.

She looked down at her hand and smiled the first genuine smile I'd seen from her. "We don't know yet, we just got engaged last week."

"I see." We stood outside his door and she gazed in through the glass. Tears came fresh. "Amy, were you there the night of the accident?" She nodded, her preferred method of communication it seemed. "When you're done with your visit, can we talk again?" She nodded again, her eyes locked on her fiancé. I pushed open the door and led her in.

"Brantley, how are you feeling?"

"Like hell."

"That's to be expected considering you've gone through hell. I have a visitor for you. It's Amy, your girlfriend."

His eyes found the ceiling and he sighed with a sour look taking control of his face. "You mean I have a girlfriend? Who in their right damn mind would want to be that close to a mess like me?"

Amy stepped forward then, "Brantley you are not a mess, and I want to be that close to you. I always have and always will." I watched as she took his hand and sat down at his bedside. The look of seeing a stranger passed ofver Brantley's face and tears wet Amy's. I slipped quietly out of the room, my heart hurting for the two young people in that room.


End file.
